stories from

Friday, June 15, 2012

2012

In the wake of a declaration this week by a state pharmacy agency that synthetic marijuana had been classified as a dangerous Schedule I drug, Athens-Clarke county police joined law-enforcement agencies in other jurisdictions in checking local stores to determine whether any might still be stocking those products.

An Athens-Clarke County Police Department report indicates that a lack of supervision as students are arriving for summer classes at Cedar Shoals High School on the county’s Eastside might have contributed to an alleged shoplifting incident at a nearby store.

The Target discount store at 3065 Atlanta Highway and the Belk store in Georgia Square mall, also on Atlanta Highway, are dealing with significant cases of internal theft, according to separate Athens-Clarke County police reports.

Bogart began a new recycling program recently that could in the next few years find nearly 45 percent of the town's residents recycling waste products, according to T.L. Turman, a member of the City Council.

The Oconee County Library will host author Walton Young at 3 p.m. June 23. Young is a Georgia native with 32 years of experience working in advertising for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Young’s novel, “A Gathering of Eagles,” is about a man who returns from the battlefields of France in World War I to the family farm, where he finds conflict fueled by greed and revenge.

The Oconee County Library will host “Drumming for Success” by Arvin Scott of Athens at 10:30 a.m. June 20. The program teaches children about the art of drumming and rhythm. The program is free. For more information, call (706) 769-3950

A political forum for candidates for Jackson County Board of Education, State Court Judge, Board of Commissioners Chairman and 9th District U.S. Congress will be held at 6:30 p.m. June 19 at the Jackson EMC headquarters in Jefferson.

WILSON, N.C. — North Carolina leaders of the NAACP spoke out Friday in support of a Wilson man who they say was protecting himself and his son when he shot and killed a man outside his home in Georgia in 2005.

Rutherford Hall is no more. On Friday, all that remained of the dormitory on the University of Georgia's South Campus was a pile of rubble - bricks, timbers, a twisted metal staircase and almost everything else that used to be Rutherford Hall.

TYBEE ISLAND- Visitors to Georgia's largest public beach will soon have to pay more to park closest to the sand and surf.
Tybee Island's City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to raise parking rates at its two beachfront parking lots from $1.

KINGSLAND, Ga.- Family and friends are saying goodbye to a former southeast Georgia mayor who died in a car crash.
Funeral services were scheduled Friday afternoon for Keith Dixon, who served as mayor of Kingsland on the Georgia coast from 1986 to 2003.

ATLANTA- Georgia's massive Medicaid program is facing a shortfall of more than $300 million in the coming fiscal year, a state official said.
Vince Harris, the agency's chief financial officer, updated board members on the situation Thursday.

WINDER - A Winder man has been found guilty of killing his wife, whose body was found in a Barrow County well. According to Barrow County Clerk of Superior Court Regina McIntyre, a jury Thursday found 42-year-old James Lynn Jr.

CAIRO — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood pinned its hopes Friday on weekend elections to salvage its waning political fortunes, responding to a court order dissolving its power base in parliament by urging voters to support the Islamist group's candidate for president.

WASHINGTON — Sharpening an election-year confrontation over religious freedom and government health insurance rules, the nation's Catholic hospitals on Friday rejected President Barack Obama's compromise for providing birth control coverage to their women employees.

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario — Daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls, taking steady, measured steps Friday night for 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of the roaring falls separating the U.S. and Canada.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A former Army weapons expert wanted for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend killed himself with a gunshot to the head, quelling the risk of more bloodshed and silencing perhaps the only voice that might have answered the central question: Was a break-up enough to cause a gifted trauma surgeon widely beloved as a lifesaver to end two lives in a spasm of violence?

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama suddenly eased enforcement of the nation's immigration laws Friday, an extraordinary step offering a chance for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to stay in the country and work. Embraced by Hispanics, his action touched off an election-year confrontation with many Republicans.

"Follow me."
The motto of the U.S. Army Infantry came to mind as I sat talking with Jimmy Mosconis in Apalachicola, Fla., a couple of weeks ago. "Apalach," as the locals call it, is an isolated fishing village on the coast of the Florida panhandle.

ATLANTA - Rookie Andrelton Simmons made amends for his first career error by hitting a two-run, go-ahead homer in the sixth inning and the Atlanta Braves beat Baltimore 4-2 on Friday night to end the Orioles' five-game winning streak.

OMAHA, Neb. - Adam Plutko turned in a third straight strong start and UCLA jumped on College World Series newcomer Stony Brook for five runs in the first inning on its way to a 9-1 victory in Friday's opener.
The No.

NEW YORK - If you miss any of your favorite events during the upcoming Summer Olympics in London, don't blame NBC.
Every sport, every single competition will be streamed live online or telecast by NBC and its affiliated cable networks in the U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO - It has been six weeks since Bubba-mania began and reached a crescendo after a stunning wedge shot that had such a curve in its arch that nobody would have been amazed if it had boomeranged back to where he was standing.

SAN FRANCISCO - Seventeen-year-old Beau Hossler had sole possession of the lead at the U.S. Open on Friday after a birdie on No. 1.
Then reality hit for the California amateur on a stretch billed as the hardest start in tournament history.

OKLAHOMA CITY - A long, taxing year is coming to a familiar finish for Oklahoma City Thunder guard Derek Fisher.
It all started with him being front and center during the NBA lockout as the president of the players' union.

BROOKLYN, Mich. - Eleven top-10 finishes. Second place in the Sprint Cup standings.
That's an impressive start to the season for any driver, but for Dale Earnhardt Jr., it only makes the question more persistent.